A blog about raising Chicken and Guineas. Providing solutions for common chicken illnesses and problems from a family run farm. Backyard chickens and how to care for them cheaply. Also raising guineas, ducks and geese.

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Using fall leaves in the chicken run.

When I put the baby Guineas into the chicken run again this morning I noticed they looked kinda, well....bored!These little guys go in the covered run every day by them selves till their big
enough to play outside without the big kids picking on them. I suppose after awhile that would get boring, so I decided to find them something to do. I gave them some leaves to play in and boy did they have a good time! It was simple really, I just raked up some dry leaves and threw them in the run.

Lots of little bugs hide in leaves (like momma said....never jump in a leaf pile, you'll get ticks!) and chickens and guineas love bugs. There's also lots of little bit of grasses and weed seeds that get raked up with them. The leave are organic and they break down to almost nothing. It's quicker if they stay dry, but even the wet ones will break down eventually. Plus....my favorite part...they're FREE! :-) Nothing like free litter for the run. With all the $$ we spend on sand, shavings, straw and hay I really like these 2 months of free run filler!

These little guys had so much fun, I decided to rake a few piles of leaves into both the silkie runs and the big guinea run. Try it, your chickens will love it too!